Mark Delpriora

Suite

Even the question of inviting the great Segovia is a matter of high finance

Ezra Pound 1934

The first contact with Bach for many guitarists of a certain age was filtered through the stylistic lens of Andrés Segovia. His colorful fingerings, idiosyncratic bass notes and harmonies, and specific choice of repertoire all point toward a Romantic aesthetic. Even when Segovia performed Bach arrangements by other hands, they invariably bore his profound interpretive stamp.

William Wordsworth famously observed that "poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility." For this Suite, I remember with great fondness the Segovia arrangements that introduced me to Bach—pieces I assiduously studied in my youth. Hence, this work stands as a homage to the maestro in the spirit of composing "Im alten Stil," a neo-Baroque genre guitarists associate with Ponce, Santórsola, and Tansman, but equally embraced by Schoenberg, Petrassi, and Schnittke.

While this piece takes off on various motives from Bach works that guitarists are familiar with, I decided to take flight with them and go where fantasy lead me.

The work is dedicated to Brazilian guitarist, Paulo Martelli.

Mark Delpriora